Mike Posner turns poet: “Teardrops & Balloons” in stores today

Youniverse PublishingMike Posner is working on a new album, launching a tour and prepping another album with his side project, Mansionz.  On top of that, he’s releasing his first book of poetry, Teardrops and Balloons.  Mike admits it might not be a good idea to do it now, but he couldn’t help himself.

“It’s probably a stupid career move that I’m gonna lose money on,” he tells ABC Radio. “But I just felt in my heart that the writing is as good as any of my songwriting. [If] you have this body of work that you believe in and you think is really good, I think you’re supposed to put it out in the world instead of just leaving it…in your laptop.”

The title of the book, Mike says, comes from the fact that since childhood, he’s been doodling teardrops on his papers. 

“When I was maybe 24 years old, I realized that if I flipped the paper upside down, the teardrops became balloons,” he explains. “So for me, it was a metaphor for turning negative to positive.”

The poems in the book are intensely personal, revealing, and often funny, covering sex, love, death, drugs, insecurity, fame and more.   One is actually a collage of “mean tweets” he received from online trolls. It’s called “Hate Mail.”

“When I take something that’s…negative and try to find the humor or the art in that, then it doesn’t cut so deeply,” he explains. “It kinda seems funny and, sometimes, beautiful.”

Mike’s songs are also very personal, and he says his songs and poems are “coming from the same place.”

“It’s kinda like hot water and cold water,” he explains. “They’re both coming from the same filtration system somewhere up the stream…but they come out of a different faucet.” 

Teardrops and Balloons is in stores today.

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